Indian billionaire helps Kerala woman repay loan after she’s evicted from her house

In an endearing tale from India’s Kerala, a UAE-based billionaire came forward to help a woman from his native place, The Lulu Group chairman MA Yusuff Ali repays Rs 8 lakh loan of a Kerala woman, who was evicted from her house due to an unpaid loan.

Ali not only repaid the entire loan amount but also instructed his team back in India to offer her Rs 10 lakh. The story of Sandhya being thrown off her house made local news and moved thousands of people who could identify her plight. It was then, that the story reached Lulu Group’s chairman and he provided Sandhya with assistance.

According to local media, Sandhya and her husband took a loan from a private institution in 2019 for the construction of their home in North Paravur, Kerala. The couple took a loan of Rs 4 lakh from Manappuram Finance, a Kerala-based Non Banking Finance Company (NBFC).

However, in 2021, things didn’t go well between Sandhya and her husband, and the latter left her and their two children. The repayment of the loan stopped thereafter. Gradually, the loan amount spiralled to nearly Rs 8 lakh with interest.

Manappuram Finance started foreclosure proceedings after the repayments stopped. The NBFC said that Sandhya had been given four warnings after loan repayments stopped three years ago. 

Recently, when Sandhya returned to her home, she was shell-shocked to find that NBFC officials had entered her house and replaced her locks, officially evicting her and her two children. They did not even allow Sanhdya to take their belongings from inside the house.

The plight of Sandhya and her children, stranded on the road sparked outrage among locals. Her story was soon picked up by local media and reached MA Yusuff Ali, the chairman of Lulu Group, who immediately stepped in to help the family.

According to One India, Yusuff Ali instructed his team to repay the loan and it was due to his intervention that the keys to Sandhya’s house were returned. 

Lulu Group’s media coordinator Swaraj handed over the keys to Sandhya and also provided her with ₹10 lakh to start a fixed deposit.

Sandhya expressed her gratitude to the billionaire, saying that she and her children would have been in a dire state had it not been for Yusuff Ali.

(With inputs from agencies)